


Mother Dearest

by Meloncholor



Series: Belinda and Leandra Belmont [2]
Category: Castlevania (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Not Beta Read, Slice of Life, Trevor loves his mom, character exploration
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2019-08-23 12:10:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16618712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meloncholor/pseuds/Meloncholor
Summary: After finding his grandmother's book on vagina spells, Sypha and Alucard want to know more about Trevor's family





	1. Comfort

“Trevor!” A misty voice called into the forest, but the boy was curled in the boughs of the gnarled tree. He watched the clouds roll, the sun casting light behind them, turning the sky-bound sheep a soft pink. He was crying. “Trevor!” the voice called, clearer this time. He stayed in the tree, letting his nose bleed down his face, turning the crisp white hem of his shirt a deep red. The tree cradled him, swaying gently as the wind cooed a soft lullaby in his ears. “Trevor for the love of god!” The shrill call was just below him now. His bruised fingers clenched into a fist. “Please,” the voice started. “Trevor please come down from there.”

“No.” He spat and rolled over to hug the tree further.

“And why not?”

“They were hitting me again.” he rubbed an arm under his bludgeoned nose, taking the blood away and onto his brand new shirt.

“Come down for your mother won’t you dear? Me and Nana Bell will be leaving soon and I want to say goodbye to my little sun-bear.” Leandra Belmont stood at the base of the tree, her mail and leather armor ready for the saddle, her whip and sword seated comfortably on her hip. Trevor sniffled, and she waited. He rolled and began to climb down, landing a few feet away from his mother. “Oh, you poor thing.” He was covered in blood and bruises, a painful reminder of his distant uncle Gregory and his three sons. She crouched on her knee to look at him closer, “They left already Trevor. They can’t hurt you again.” She stretched her arms wide. “Come here my little sun-bear.” He broke into a grating sob. He dashed at this mother, latching around her neck, heaving violent sobs and she held him there. Holding him close and rubbing a hand across his back, letting him bleed and cry onto her shoulder.

He watched from the great doorway as she rode off, waving to him as she disappeared into the dark forest.

 

-0-

 

Sypha had pulled a chair next to a window near the fireplace, cozied up under a small blanket with a pile of literature seated next to her on the floor, all featuring her new favorite author. Each volume was bound in bright dyed leather and reached nearly as high as her shin. She hummed a soft tune as she read. Alucard sat in the chair next to her on the other side of the window, picking through his own small collection of books.

“Trevor’s grandmother is a strange woman.” She mused.

“Is that so?”

“I’ve been pouring through these journals all morning, and she doesn’t speak much of anything about beasts, or spells, or even other parts of the library, that book I found earlier must have been one in a million.” She flipped another yellowed page. “She keeps mentioning another woman named Belinda and she likes talking about flowers.”

Alucard hummed, turning the page of his own book.

“ _Day 117 -- Leandra is becoming impatient with me, again.”_ Sypha read aloud. “ _I cannot help that it takes me much longer to get onto my horse than it does for her. I told her to tell me about the boy, I was unable to say goodbye to him this time. She said he was fighting with the nephews again. I don’t blame him, those boys act too much like their shitstain of a father. Not my side, not my issue, that’s Titus’ boy and Titus is a shitstain too. Leandra’s son is the quiet one, but angry as if hell had cast all their sins on him, just like his mother. Doesn’t like to pick fights, but strong little thing. Looks just like her too. I miss him.”_

“So Leandra is Belinda’s daughter then?” Alucard yawned, standing up to get a good stretch in his legs and set his book on the arm of the chair.

“Yes, I suppose so.” She replied.

“Do you know what that means?” He grinned. The poor girl just shook her head. “I believe we might be reading a description of Trevor’s mother.”

Her eyes snapped back down onto the page, reading through another time. “Oh wow.” The dainty cursive that flowed on the page explained someone that may be the disgruntled hunter they all had come to know and love. She jumped up from the chair, shutting the book with a harsh snap. “We have to show Trevor!” with a definitive wave of the book in the air she dashed out of the room.

 

-0-

 

Trevor preferred to work alone when he was in the hold, it gave him time to be alone with his thoughts, and with his memories. He didn’t need to do much other than some light dusting here and there, removing the occasional piece of damaged wood would occasionally make the day more interesting. But he decided to just reminisce that afternoon, tread down the aisles like he used to, hands clasped behind his back perusing the titles and labels of the books and skeletons. He missed this place. Seeing his grandmother’s handwriting had really stirred something in him, a deep longing he had forgotten how to tap into. It was nice, navigating the polished shelves and just soaking in the atmosphere of the library. Mother had always loved it in here. He turned another corner rounding an aisle of alchemical recipes for various flora and fauna.

“Trevor!” Sypha was standing at the high entrance to the sanctuary, waving to him with another one of Nana Bell’s books in her hand, he could tell from even the ground floor, a purple that violent was that woman’s staple. The mage couldn’t contain her own excitement from whatever she wanted and leaning over the railing to yell at him looked like it wasn’t going to suit her needs, with a swift sound of the air being sliced she vaulted over the railing and gently floated down to the floor below. Trevor was there waiting for her, arms crossed and brows furrowed.

“Something wrong Sypha?” He raised an eyebrow.

She waved the small book in front of his face. “I was reading your grandmother’s journal and found this!” Sypha flipped it open and pointed to a short paragraph, scrawled neatly in Nana Bell’s handwriting, he could see his mother’s name.

“And you brought me this because…?” He closed the book for her and returned his hands to their previous position. Leaning against a nearby shelf, he began to examine his fingernails with intense and relentless fervor.

“Is that your mother Trevor?” She smiled, clearly pleased with her own discovery.

“Yes, and why is that so particularly fascinating?”

Alucard emerged from the entrance then, an air of unsettling grace flowing about him. “Because everything about your immediate family is a complete mystery Belmont, call us curious.” He lookup on the two, but meandered down the stairs as he let his eyes wander around the expanse of the library.

Trevor rolled his eyes, “She wasn’t even there for most of my life, I was barely raised by my father before the house burned.”

“That sounds like a story to tell.” Sypha chirped, clasping the book to her chest.

“What the hell are you talking about woman.” Trevor spat, squinting at her.

“Dinner then? Trevor gives the full details about this mysterious Leandra over roast pig?” Alucard sneered.

“I never said anything about that.”

“It’s settled then, dinner it is!” The mage giggled.


	2. Belinda's woes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trevor finds a package of his father's.

“Leandra!”

She sighed, it seems her lute practice will be cut short today. Mother burst into her small bedroom, fully armored in her winter hunting garb and a large scroll cradled under her arm. “Mother, it’s barely noon.” Leandra set her lute down against her chair. “What on earth could you want?” She hadn’t even gotten out of her morning robe.

“I found a trove, Lee!” She whipped open the scroll with a snap, revealing a large map of Wallachia, a black ‘x’ marked over a patch of woods to the north. The old woman snapped her fingers, “A coven’s library! North of Sweetwater and guarded by real Venus flowers!” She rolled the map back up.

“What’s in it?” Leandra stood, dusting off the front of her robe.

“Spells and whatnot. You know about witch troves dear, could be tons of books there!” She brushed the silver hair from her face twitching with excitement.

“Oh no, no, no.” Lee started. “That’s not all mother, what _else_ is in the trove? What’s the name of the coven? Because I swear to God if you lead me into anot--”

“It’s the Daughters of Sapphos.”

“Goddammit, Belinda!” Leandra stormed past her mother and out into the hall, “I’m not going to be a part of some Greek whore’s curse again!” Belinda followed her daughter, but the other’s longer strides made it difficult, she waved about the large map as she talked.

“Oh, but my sweet Lee, my little moonflower,” She whipped about in front of her daughter, stopping her in her tracks. “You and I both know that curses aren’t the only thing the sapphics can give us.” Bell jabbed at her collarbone. Lee sighed.

“Mother you can’t keep chasing these witches remains, you know full well what happened last time. I don’t know why you keep on insisting we investigate the sapphics.”

“Knowledge! Sweet knowledge that your shitstain of a husband’s family would never appreciate!”

“That shitstain gave me my son!”

“Whose only intelligence comes from the fact that he’s related to us!”

“Mother!”

“Two months or less, and I have a plan.” Belinda grinned, knowing full well the hold she had over her child. Leandra peered down at her from her nose.

“One month. I’ll let Vallus and Beau in on our plans. Trevor isn’t going to like this mother.”

“He’s a very independent boy, my dear. He’ll barely notice we’re gone.” Belinda clapped her hands together and turned down the hall.

“God shits in my dinner once again.”

 

-0-

 

“What do you think his mother was like?” Sypha asked, setting down another plate at their small table. Alucard was busy in the adjacent kitchen stirring a boiling pot of roast pork stew, occasionally gliding to another counter to pour in another small fistful of herbs or chopped vegetables in. Sypha often remarked about the pleasant smell.

“She’s probably a very intelligent woman, his grandmother’s journals are anything to go by.” He stirred again, lifting the concoction to his lips. “A striking difference from our sweet Trevor.” he snickered. She laughed along with him as she grabbed a handful of silverware from the cabinet above his head.

“I bet. He seems very different from the way his mother described, Belinda practically worshipped the woman.”

“You two still talking about that? “ Trevor entered from the other end of the dining room. His hair was a little wet and he wore his hunting coat.

“Speak of the Devil and he shall appear.” Alucard chided.

“Take the pot off the fire Alucard. I found something in the hold that you both might like.”

The dhampir and the mage exchanged glances. Trevor gestured for them to follow him back out the door. Alucard moved the pot and extinguished the fire. Sypha followed him and Trevor out into the hall. The walked past the metal torches as Trevor led them around a few corners and into the main sitting room. He had his prize leant against Dracula’s old chair. “Here, this was in Father’s personal collection. My grandmother hated this thing.” Trevor had managed to drag a fairly large bundle into the small corridor, It was square and pristinely wrapped in brown cloth, tied together by a golden knotted cord. It was doused in a thick layer of dust, excluding the spot with Trevor’s large handprints.

“Congratulations Belmont, you managed to bring in our mail, did you set out the laundry as well?”

“Oh eat shit Alucard.”

Sypha moved to inspect the parcel, tugging gently at the thin cord. “What is it.?” She trailed her fingers along the sides. She felt a pattern stitched into the cloth and it slid smoothly against her fingers. “It looks important.”

“Here. He shooed her out of the way and pulled a knife from inside his coat. “I’ll show you.” He slipped his knife across the length of the cloth, tracing around the edges, and peeled it away once he was satisfied with the cut.

It was an oil painting. Warm evening light was cast on two differently aged women. The younger face was feigning a smile back at them. The other woman grimaced with a menace the shot sparks from her crinkling eyes. “May I introduce to you, Belinda and Leandra Belmont. My mother and grandmother.”

Trevor looked enough like his mother that it was unmistakable. She had the same wild blue eyes, rich mahogany curls were tied loosely and spread across her neck and shoulders. She wore a white dress that was obviously bridal, a large brooch with the Belmont insignia sat on her breast. Belinda glowered in a full fitting of her chain and leather armor, hair pulled into a tight bun, and a gloved hand rested on her hip, gripping the morning star.

“They’re beautiful. Alucard said, faint disbelief in his voice.

“Yes.” Sypha agreed

“This was my mother’s betrothal, commissioned by my grandfather on my father’s side.”

"Where is your grandfather?" Sypha asked.

“My grandmother never married, she didn't want my mother to either.”

Sypha kneeled forward then. “I think I read something about that in one of her journals.”

“That woman tells all kinds of stories. “Trevor patted the frame. “I asked her once about my grandfather, all she did was take me to the garden and pointed to a patch of lavender. She had quite a laugh about it. ‘There you go, boy.’ she says. Nutty old bat.” He pointed to her, “She lost her sense long before mother let on.”

Alucard furrowed his brows. “Did you say lavender?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tada! Fun little bit of domestic fluff, moving on with My Ocs! Leave a comment if you have any likes, criticisms, or if you just want to call me a fake gamer girl!


	3. Mountains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leandra and Belinda go exploring, Alucard and Trevor become friends.

 

Leandra loved the wood in winter. The quiet allowed her to think, and the farther they strode up to the mountain the quieter it got. Even in broad daylight, Lee struggled to even hear the rustling of a bird in the underbrush. They were skirting the edge of the treeline now, following the sparse trail of trees towards their destination, Belinda had taken her place far ahead of her daughter, and grumbled to herself every so often.

“Damned witches, damned woods, can’t build a coven library near fucken civilization, no sir, gotta build it in the damned mountain like a bunch of celibate fucken monks.”

“You wanted to come here, Mother,” Leandra said, stepping over a pile of ice-crusted stones. “Don’t give up now.”

“Damned witches can’t just be normal! They have to build their magic bullshit on a damned mountain!” She shouted and tried adjusting the white wolf fur draped around her shoulders. “We’re almost there! Watch out for wards!”

They continued on for a short while, Leandra was a few paces behind, careful to avoid patches of ice and rocks. Belinda charged through the wood with purpose, propelled by sheer spite and the promise of discovery. Her daughter was just happy to be out in the open, taking in the clear mountain air and the blue summer sky. The trees became denser as they moved on and Bell’s curses were getting worse. “Damned fucking witch-whores, making me wade in the snowy shit to get to their fucken library, too old for them to be playing these games with me, I don’t need any of this.”

“You’re complaining again, mother.”

“Oh fuck off Lee!”

Leandra giggled. It became harder to weave through the brush, and more than once the two were in danger of losing their footing. The younger was still quite a bit behind, and she had long lost sight of her mother, so she just followed the small footprints leading farther into the wood.

“Mother!?” She shouted after her senior.

“Yes, dear?” The other woman called back, much closer than Lee had anticipated.

“Why do you care so much about the Sapphics?” She stepped over another patch of ice. “You always freak out over their stuff.”

“I used to know their High Priestess.”

“Really?” Lee rounded a particularly large tree, where her mother was standing.

Belinda crouched down, looking at something sitting at her feet. “Oh yes, before my mother died and I settled at the estate, she and I were close.”

“What happened?”

“You did, my dearest.”

Leandra approached her from behind, moving to look at what occupied her mother’s attention. “Mother you’re speaking in riddles again.” Her mother was looking at a small glowing ward, about the size of a coin, and constructed in a flowing purple marking.

“Oh hush girl, I couldn’t travel anymore and she needed to take care of her people. She adored you though, came to visit often until you reached about four, people were getting suspicious.” Belinda ghosted a hand over the soft blue glow of the magic ward, turning it a violent red before it disappeared into a puff of smoke.

“Why on earth would people be suspicious?’

Bell stood, and began walking back into the forest with more precision, keeping her eyes glued to the ground. “You’re asking too many questions, dear.”

“No, I’m not! You never tell me anything!” She stomped, but kept closer to her mother, keeping an eye out for more wards

“She was a lovely, stately woman, who was also a witch. My brother was afraid she was using me to steal Belmont knowledge.”

“Was she?”

“No. She gave me one of my greatest treasures, and I was eternally thankful to her” They rounded a small patch of brush, lower on the mountain, and there was a small layer of wards in a neat circle, each glowing a different color and at a different intensity. “Here we are.”

“Which one of your treasures?”

“You, my dear.”

 

-0-

 

Alucard had taken to doing his own research on the elusive Belinda Belmont, directed by Sypha to her small shelf in the hold. Her journals were easily identifiable by the bright purple binding, and the neatly written gold name on each of the spines. He sat below her shelf reading, and he was surprised that the course language displayed in her writing was something completely different than his idea of the woman who stood tight-lipped and stoic in the painting before. He read from one of her first volumes, the writing a bit neater than the aged hands of an elderly woman.

_Day 182_

_I miss Elinore. Plainly and truly, she had left only two weeks ago but I can already feel the change in the estate. The others are more comfortable now, I understand that. But I know the laughter had bled out the door as she followed. I fear for my sweet little Lee, my little moon, but she barely comprehends the graveness of Elinore’s absence. She looks so much like her sometimes. Not blonde like my brothers and I, but that deep brown of her hair and the steel grey of her eyes. It pains me to see her when Ellie isn’t here, but we both know the locals will not take to her appearance much longer, and she must spend more and more time away from the girl. It will be difficult but she will be strong. She is a Belmont, after all._

 

He tried to look for more mentions of lavender, and this strange woman Elinore, but she was barely mentioned later on in her collection. However, the first few are littered with her name. Along with small professions of admiration and adoration and the strange connection to Leandra.

“What are you doing Alucard?” Trevor appeared, snow gracing his hair and shoulders.

“Doing some reading, and might I say, your grandmother was nearly obsessed with your mother.”

Trevor sat next to him, bringing the stink of outside with him, and peered over Alucard’s shoulder. “She always was like that, acted like my mother was given to her by the grace of God himself.”

“Do you know much about her?”

“Not my grandmother no, she was pretty private with everyone except for my mother. And mom did just about everything she asked her to.”

“Do you know anything about a woman named Elinore?

“Not at all, why?”

“Your grandmother mentioned her a few times.”

“Nana Bell knew a lot of people. I’m not surprised.”

Trevor shivered then, letting loose some of the snow that had collected on him, and effectively soaking Alucard.

“Jesus Belmont, must you constantly behave like a dog?”

“Shut it.”

He rolled his eyes and continued reading.

_Day 204_

 

_She visited us one last time before winter snowed her and her sisters in the mountains, bringing Lee a small bundle of wildflowers and a small bracelet. My brother Vallus pulled me aside after he returned from hunting this morning, concerned. He’s honestly such a piece of shit sometimes. I am the eldest, I have an heir, all he has to fucking do is shut his mouth and appreciate the radiant company I’m providing him. He wants to act like some pole-assed noble all day, go to Targoviste and wipe the Bishop’s shit for a living. I put him in his place fairly quickly, calling him out on that strumpet he brought on a small hunt two years ago, before we found out she stole some of Father’s silverware. What an ass._

“You’re grandmother reminds me of you.”

“Is that so?”

“Vulgar, angry, simple.”

“Doesn’t sound like Nana. She liked fine wine, reading in her chambers, and a three-course meal when she would come home.”

“She wasn’t home a lot?”

“No, she was usually gone for two or three months at a time. Sometimes bringing my mother.”

“Did you miss them often?”

“Yes. Very much.”

Alucard laughed. “Look at us Belmont, chattering about your life like lovers behind a barn.”

Trevor barked. “I suppose we are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some fun buddy stuff. Everyone is friendly and happy! This is probably my favorite chapter, if you like, dislike, or have some criticism leave a comment, or if you want to just call me a fake gamer girl.


	4. Valence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Valence comes home and Sypha likes Trevor a bit more.

Trevor was alone at the large dining table, dwarfed by the chair he was sitting in, his feet touched nowhere near the ground. He was picking at a luxurious meal of roast pheasant laid out before him, turning his mashed potatoes into little snowmen with lentils for eyes. His mother had left that morning, the roasted pheasant was her favorite, a delicacy from England.

But, of course, a maid scurrying past the entrance of the dining hall spotted him. She was carrying several plates in need of washing, and a small smear of dirt crossed one of her rounded cheeks. “Master Trevor!” She chimed, waving to him from the other side of the room. He sighed, she was obviously one of the new ones. The young girl tarried in, as to avoid breaking any of Nana Bell’s china as she moved to stand beside him. “Oh you poor dear, aren’t you hungry?” Her voice was laced with pity, but she smiled nonetheless. He said nothing, keeping his eyes trained on the spoon uselessly shoving around his beans.

“Having a bit of a pout I see, well alright then. Perhaps Mrs. Gainsbury will fix you a snack if you’re hungry later. She grabbed his plate, adding it to a growing pile resting against her side. He turned away from her, folding his arms. But before she could make another snide comment. A massive bell tolled in the high towers of the mansion, shaking the solid foundation at its core. It nearly caused the young maid to drop her dishes. “What the fuck was that!” She snapped.

The boy, overcome with the sense of realization leaped out of his seat. “He’s home!” The Belmont boy shouted, leaping from his chair and dashing from the dining hall, moments before the head maid called out the announcement. “The Lord has arrived!”

Trevor was able to reach the receiving room before the clamoring feet of the servants followed. He hopped onto one of the large chairs, reaching with his toes to peek over the side and out the front window. His father’s traveling party was sitting out front, the horses were stamping in the dirt, riderless and antsy, and a few of the handlers were trying to calm them down. However, the Lord was nowhere to be seen.

As the servants poured in taking their places along the walls and near the entrance to the west wing, three guards entered the room. Trevor, the only one in a chair, stood in it, and he was the first thing they could see when they arrived. The boy could never remember their names, but the leader was a jolly man with deep brown eyes and a bushy mustache. The other two guards stood posted at his sides blocking the entrance to the room, helmets still on and hands still poised on their swords. The captain’s face curled into a smile and handed his helmet to a waiting-maid to his left. “Look what we have here boys!” He laughed a large man’s laugh, reaching down to ruffle the child’s hair. “Little Trevor has come to greet us!” The other two chuckled with him, starting a chorus that spread to a few of the servants.

“Is he here?” Trevor asked the guard captain, bouncing eagerly on his heels, moving the man’s hand away.

He made a mock thinking motion, screwing up his face and scratching his head before his expression broke as a light had shown through his psyche. “Oh…” he said, standing and setting his hands on his hips. “Who on earth could that be?” The got another round of chuckles from the small crowd gathered. He bellowed another hardy laugh. “Just kidding with you boy! I know exactly what you’re talking about!” He snapped his fingers and the other men stood at attention, brandishing their swords in salute as the fourth pair of boots joined their mock march.

“Know what who’s talking about?” Another voice asked above the rest. It wasn’t gravelly at the guard captain’s, and the canter was of a man who had finally come home. The guard gracefully ducked out of the way, and there stood Valence Belmont. He was a tall tanned man with impossibly long black hair and glinting brown eyes, that soften when they land on his son. The crowd, holding their breath in lieu of his command, break into small affectionate gasps and chatter.

He kneeled forward, leather armor stretching as he did so. “There you are, my boy.” He spread his arms wide, welcoming the lonely boy who launched from his chair and into his arms. “I’m sorry I wasn’t home sooner.” The boy just held him tight, sniffling into the crook of his shoulder.

-0-

 

Sypha was seated in the corner of the small cave they were squatting in, writing a short, pointed description of wendigos, to catalog in the library when they returned home. Trevor was busily turning a few pounds of lopsided meat on a spit while Alucard keeps watch at the cave’s entrance. Night had fallen and quiet swept over their camp, save for the crackling of the fire and Sypha’s gentle scribbles.

“It’s nice isn’t it?” Trevor whispered to the air. “Nights like this.” Alucard made a small noise in agreement. The cave wasn’t that deep, and Sypha was still able to look up into the night sky every so often, letting the cool night air streaming in from the opening. She was close enough to Trevor smell the herbs and blood wafting off him, something she had gotten used to when being around the larger man. She had been reading more about him from his grandmother, and something had changed. She wrote about him as this brash, scared little boy, who just wanted his mother and Trevor seemed to make more sense now. There was more clarity surrounding him. She found it endearing, to know that the charming and clingy little boy in her writing was the same distant, rugged, man she had come to adore. She sneaked glances at him every so often, watching the fire cast dancing shadows across his face as he turned dinner on the spit.

The team, _is that what they were now? The word didn’t feel strong enough._ Had taken to call these small excursions “research expeditions” but it really is just an excuse for them to wander off into the countryside and enjoy each other’s close company. Sypha knew this, but the poor boys were a bit slow on the uptake.

“Did ever go on trips with your parents Trevor?” Sypha asked.

“Oh yes, but it was never on the dangerous ones like my mother used to go on.” He sliced a bit of the meat off with his hunting knife to get a taste. “Both my parents and I would go once and a while to this trading post far south of here.”

Alucard strode in, taking his own place by the fire. “Oh? I’m eager to hear this.” He crossed his legs and warmed his hands. Sypha kept writing but agreed with the vampire. “You seem to be full of stories lately Trevor.”

“I don’t remember the name of the place, and they spoke an odd language there, but I remember it was hot all the time and there were entire streets lined with spices and cloth. Mother and Father loved it there, he always bought her cloth for her favorite dresses.” He began slicing into the tender meat, handing both Sypha and Alucard a strip. “The people were darker skinned, and my father intimately knew their language, it was one of the few my mother couldn’t understand. But they had these spicy cakes that were covered in honey that he would buy me, and a woman there always was happy to see him.”

“Where was your father from Belmont?” Alucard asked, taking small bites from the nearly burnt meat.

“He never said. My mother knew she had alluded to it once or twice. It was their secret. I didn’t pry.” He cut another large piece for himself, taking an appreciative chew before stowing his knife in the sheath on his chest.

“A warm place, filled with cloth and spices, quite the man indeed,” Alucard added, taking another bite of his meat ration.

“Strange too, that your grandmother didn’t like him. He sounds very nice.” She scribbled a final note as she took a piece of her meat into her mouth.

“She was a nutty old bat that’s why. My dad was the nicest person I knew.”

“A bit defensive aren’t you Belmont?”

“Shut it Alucard. It’s just, my dad died while the whole world believed he was an evil man. It was bad enough my grandmother hated him too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Valence is here! I wanted to finally address him before we get into some deeper story elements, so stay tuned for some crazy stuff in the next few chapters.


	5. Two Lovers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Valence and Leandra reunite and Trevor discovers a small detail residing in one of his grandmother's journals.

Leandra was poised like an idol in the center of the room, her back facing her seven cousins circled around her like apostles to a saint, each seated in the various chairs or leaning against the larger pieces of furniture, and watched patiently as she scanned over the floor-to-ceiling map of Wallachia. Liam spoke up first. “What are you doing woman?” He was the oldest of her cousins, (Her oldest uncle’s son.) with a large brow and deep-seated eyes much like her uncle second in age only to herself and he was a man who was easily annoyed. “We’ve all been waiting here for damn near five minutes for you to speak up!.”

“Only a man who has no consideration for his words would always be eager to speak.” She said, still keeping a steady gaze on the map. A few of the other cousins giggled to themselves, and Liam grunted, folding his arms and pouting. She blinked a few times, trying to will away her pounding migraine and set her eyes back into a sharp focus on the map. She sighed and turned to face them all.

Patrice, one of the younger ones with bright red curls and piercing blue eyes, an upstart Mother had called her once, spoke next. “Although Liam is as callous as ever, we are eager to hear what you have to say, Leandra.” She said evenly, she was leaned against one of the bookcases that lined the walls, her arms tightly folded against her chest.  

“You all are well aware of the Church becoming more and more suspicious of our activities as of late and I summoned you all here to ask an extremely difficult question on my mother’s behalf.” Her words were confident and well-rehearsed but her eyes were tired and dark underneath. She hadn’t been sleeping. “My husband should be returning home any moment now. His party scout arrived just an hour ago. But before he arrives, as born members of the Belmont clan I must ask that you keep this emergency meeting a secret.”

The group warily whispered to each other, and the youngest of the group, Victor the Fourth who had slinked into the far corner to avoid the bickering of his older siblings spoke up. “Leandra, what’s going on?” he pressed.

She sighed, her breath shaking deep in her chest. “Mother and the Head of the Belmont clan may I add,” Leandra paused, the words catching in her throat and tears threatening to track down her cheeks, but mustered another breath as her cousins began muttering to themselves again. “Has requested that we all consider leaving the estate if the situation with Church devolves into aggression. On the condition, we either return to the Ancestral Home to transport the salvageable items from the hold or requisition the seekers to transport it to the site of a new estate.” The leaders of the Belmont clan stood in a horrific silence, even Liam could barely convey his rage in words.

Abel, Liam’s brother snapped up from his seat in the armchair across the room, fists clenched to the point his knuckles were white and his eyes nearly bloodshot. “We swore! We swore we would never flee from our purpose here! Leon Belmont vowed that he, nor his family would ever be driven out of their home again!” He gazed around at the enraged and forlorn faces of his cousins and siblings. “We have carved a name for this family in this country and that is how it shall stay! We are not cowards and Belinda needs to remember that!”

Leandra winced at the loud sound. Her headache intensifying and the eyes of the small gathering were on her now. “I do not ask that you make a decision at this moment, and I understand your sentiments Abel, but I ask all of you to consider the options. We are not improving our relationship with the Church and it is getting to the point where we may have to go onto the defensive. I implore you to figure this for yourselves.” Her cousins gazed on her with pity, excluding Abel and Liam who were gripping their seats with white knuckles, eyes staring daggers at her, but as if on cue the high tower bell rang, signifying her husband's arrival. She sighed again. “Please, think about it if only for my mother’s sake.” She said finally. “You are all dismissed.”

  


Valence carried little Trevor as if he was still the young age of four, holding him tight against his chest and Trevor just returned the hug tenfold, trying his best to squeeze the guts out of his father. “You’re getting stronger every day my boy!” He laughed a hearty laugh, giving his son one last squeeze before reluctantly setting him down on the floor. Trevor, age nine, pulled back from his father, not without a bit of sniffling on his part and looked the tall man in the eyes as he knelt before him. The proud man scanned over his son's face, smiling as he noticed how much he had grown in such a short period of time. “You look so much like your mother.” He booped the little boy on the nose, earning him a few giggles.

“Daaaad!” Trevor laughed, rubbing his hand awkwardly across his face.

“Where is your mother boy?” Valence looked up to one of the servants. Who were, in turn, looking at each other for clarification.

“She’s in the war room with a few of her cousin's milord, she said she’d be down when you arrived.” A pinchy maid replied.

“Ah very well, you are all dismissed!” He smiled and the servants clamored again out of the room, eager to get back to their evening’s work. He looked back at his son. “Well my boy, would you like to help me to find your mother?” Trevor nodded hard enough to make himself dizzy.

They were heading down the hall of the western wing past a gaggle of more servants when she descended the small set of stairs there, dressed in a casual evening dress, in a deep blood red. Her hair was tied back in a long braid and the authoritative clack of her heels on the tiles echoed over the indistinct chatter of the maids. Her and her husband’s gazes connected when she reached the first landing. Soft smiles spread across both faces as she started descending the next flight, a gentle hand resting on the intricately carved railing. “There’s my knight in shining armor,” she spoke.

Valence was frozen in place, grinning dumbly as his wife approached them both. Trevor stood against his side, a hand firmly gripping the cloth of his shirt. “Dad I think we found her.” He whispered as if his mother couldn’t hear.

“I suppose we did.” He said as she landed not ten feet away from them both, with an affirmative clack on the marble floor. She smiled coyly at them both, keeping her hand on the railing. Overcome by emotion he forgot Trevor’s presence for a moment and surged forward at his wife, catching her at the waist and practically throwing her in the air causing her to scream and giggle and flail about as he peppered kisses across her cheeks and forehead, exclaiming in his own language, “ _Seni çok özledim aşkım_!” Trevor was effectively gagging at the gushy reunion.

After her giggles had started to die down she tried speaking. “Valence dear, you're scaring the boy!”

“Umrumda değil! Ve beni uzun süre uzak tutamayacaksın …” He whispered to her. Causing her to erupt into another fit of giggling.

“Valence Belmont you are an evil man!”

  


-0-

 

Trevor would never admit it to his friend or anyone else, but when he was young, he loved nothing more than just to sit up under his parents and watch them just _be_ around each other. His father’s paintings of his mother always put her in an ethereal glowing light, as if the love he felt for her was trying to burst it’s way out of the canvas. Trevor missed that, being the spoiled child of one of the most powerful families in Wallachia. But as he gets older he starts to remember less and less; the items he used to treasure in the hold become less and less important to him. He thought that surrounding himself with these things would remind him more of his past, that sitting amongst the skulls and the books would trigger something more in him but it just, wasn’t anymore. Hell, he’d even be okay if he could remember something about his grandmother if it meant that it could put him in that state of mind again. He was wandering the same aisle for at least the eighth time today, and he knew that it wasn’t doing anything for him, but he couldn’t think of anything else. He passed the section of the volumes written by his grandmother, stopping a moment to read down each of the bright purple spines.

It dawned on him.

Trevor is also not much of a reader it turns out, but he pulled one of the earlier volumes Alucard and himself were discussing the other day and scanned through the pages until he found the finely written name: _Elinore._ He scanned a few of her sections, noting as much of her appearance as possible. Mother had mentioned the name once, only in a conversation, he had eavesdropped on but if he could just figure out how old she’d be, maybe he could find some answers for questions he may have not thought to ask.

 

Alucard and Sypha were out in the small field of flowers in the front of the castle, having a small picnic to themselves, idly drinking tea and discussing the ethics of picking flowers and other seemingly nonsensical things. Trevor, in a feverish sweat, crawls out of the pit of the hold like a roach, scuttling towards his friends who looked upon him with of disdain. “Here he comes,” Sypha took a sip of her herbal tea. “What do you think he wants?”

“I’m not sure,” Alucard chuckles. “Let’s hope it's not about rats this time.” They both share a laugh.

“Elinore is a witch!” Trevor pants as he plops himself in front of their picnic blanket, face first and out of breath.

“Elinore?” Sypha looks to Alucard.

“His grandmother mentioned her in her journal a few times.” He responded.

“Elinore is a witch that was fraternizing with my grandmother, and it is very likely she is still alive.” He propped himself up, waving a scrap of paper in his right hand, folded neatly into a little square. The other two exchanged a _look_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took me a long time to update this but I had a bunch of stuff going on with school blah blah blah, I wanted to go in a certain direction with this, but I didn't want to write a whole novel ya know? So if it seems like there are some point maybe just dug in there, it's probably because I needed to get the thought out and didn't know how to expand on it. Drop a comment if you like, you want to suggest or criticize, or if you just want to call me a fake gamer girl.


	6. Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone finds out a little something.

“Mother, you’re worrying me.” Leandra sat in the window of her mother’s bedroom, looking down on the training fields at her cousins, who were laughing and carrying on between bouts of their swords. Patrice and her friend Elise who Leandra assumed was a Comtesse watched over them all, talking between themselves and sharing a pot of tea.

“Don’t watch them then, gazing upon inferiority breeds contempt.” She tosses another map aside adding it to a growing pile of papers and scrolls. Belinda picked up a small scrap and inspected it closely, bringing it to her nose and squinted hard at the few words scrawled there; unsatisfied with her findings she tossed it into the pile with the others.

“You’re awful.” Leandra spits, but she still turned away from the window, their familial happiness making her gut rot. She winces when she looks back to her mother, who was still frantically crawling around the room looking for God knows what.

“You have to come with me, Lee.” Her mother turns towards her, but there is something wrong. She’s hollow. A shell, Leandra’s mother wasn’t there anymore. Just anger and a sense of superiority, and nothing was left of the woman who raised her. Like an old hunched hag you’d find in the woods.

“Belinda. We have to talk to the others. They think you’re going crazy.” 

“Let them, the church is going to burn this place to the ground in a few hours and I don’t intend to stay here and wallow in my own ego like these  _ pigs _ for long.”

Leandra paused. The light didn’t seem to hit the room correct now, and it hit her mother so that she wasn’t even more of a gruesome caricature of herself. “What did you say?” 

The old woman’s eyes snapped up, bloodshot and panicked and plunged her stare into her soul. “You and I warned them, didn’t we? Now the church is going to come and kill them all and hike their corpses up for the world to see.” She hunched back down into her papers and books. “You and I will be leaving before then, where Elinore can protect us. She’s been waiting for us to come back.”

Her eyes went back to the window, where she wanted to scream, beg her siblings to run. But she didn’t, she wasn’t and she was lost as to why. She was in an echo tunnel, sound didn’t feel right, light didn’t feel right, her heartbeat felt too solid in her chest. “What about Trevor? A-and Valence?” She wrung her gloved hands together, the feeling of her own skin somewhat foreign to her touch.

“Nothings my dear! We are the ones who will survive.  _ You _ are the one who his above all of this! These people who are the secondary spawn of my parents will not be able to stave them off for long and your son comes from a bloodline of beggars and fools! For all he has of you he has of his father ten times over!” She threw the paper into the air, raining down on them both in a macabre show of her own insanity. 

“M-mother I don’t understand why I can’t--” A crack, and then darkness.

“We  _ will _ be above them, my dear. But for now, we have no choice but to leave.” She stood over her daughter’s now limp body, crumpled on the floor in a pile of silks. “I have to protect you.”

 

-0-

 

“Elinore is a sapphic witch that my mother fell in love with.” Trevor holds out the paper to the pair and they exchange a few more glances. Sypha takes it gingerly from his hand and turns it over again. 

“I suppose that makes some sense?” She looked at Adrian.

“That doesn’t answer your other questions, Belmont.”

“My mother is a sapphic conjuration that was created by the witch as a gift to my grandmother.”

Sypha drops the old parcment., eyes blown wide, and Adrian pauses and responds. “I-I’m sorry?” He whispers.

Trevor sits up proper and snatches the folded piece of paper from beneath Sypha, opens it with a flourish, and looks halfway down through the middle. He reads out the text there.

 

“ _ All I could do is watch while she worked. She dumped the vial of our blood over the shapeless mold of clay, the way her eyes sparkled when it began to sink into the dirt, turning it an awful black color. She circled around it in the dark room, before grabbing a pitcher of water on the table. She raised it high above the collection of dirt and poured it over.  _

_ The clay washed away, revealing pink rosy skin folded into a little ball. It’s tiny lips quivered, before letting out a scream I had never known a baby could make. _

_ She was beautiful. And perfect. Every inch of her was handcrafted for me and Elinore just smiled as I walked closer to inspect. I fell instantly in love, and I knew that I would never be the same. Her name is Leandra, for my great aunt who taught me the true ways of the world. _

 

“There’s more here but this is the important bit. My mother is a -um a witch thing?” He sentence trailed off. He thought hard again and found his sentence. “But anyway my  _ other grandmother _ is a witch.”

“Your grandmother is a lesbian who had a daughter with a sapphic witch.” Alucard drolls.

“Yes.”

“So you think this witch is still alive?” Sypha leans in with a sparkle of light in her eyes.

“Possibly, witches usually live up until their hundreds of years old, but there’s no telling for sure. If I could find the rest of her more recent journals I could piece together my own memory with the stuff my grandmother was writing about.” He turns the page to face outwards to the other two. “Like here, it talks about how my grandmother was asked by the woman a lot to come and live in the mountains with her and others of their people yes? But my grandmother denied her, saying that she still had duties to the Belmont clan.”

“Looking for more dusty journals doesn’t sound like too difficult a task.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this continuation has been a long time coming and I should have probably put it out MONTHS ago, but here it is and I hope you all enjoy. Leave a comment if you like, if you hate, or if you just want to call me a fake gamer girl.

**Author's Note:**

> It has been a long time since I posted, but I do like this and I encourage you to read part 1 of the series if you haven't already, Leandra and Belinda are two characters I really like but any comments or concerns will be considered. Please leave a review, and comment if you like or if you just want to call me a fake gamer girl.


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